On Monday evening, a faith-based group in St. Pete held their annual assembly, the place they mentioned their persevered advocacy for more affordable housing in the town. Faith and Action For Strength Together (FAST) counseled Mayor Ken Welch’s efforts to extend availability of affordable housing, however asserted that more nonetheless must be performed.
The lead pastor of Palm Lake Christian Church and co-chair of FAST, Oscar Banks, said that “as a pastor of a church, we need the people to come. We need the people to worship and to do the outreach that we do in the community and we’ve lost a lot of our younger families because they can’t afford to live here.”
FAST is made up of participants from over 50 congregations and synagogues, and prides itself on being a coverage group reasonably than a political one. Mayor Welch has lately introduced a variety to the town’s current Housing Opportunities for All Plan, together with strengthening partnerships with county leaders, native builders, and non-profits, in addition to protections for renters with the Tenants Bill of Rights.
The metropolis has additionally introduced the Replacement Housing Program, which assists senior electorate who’ve lived in their properties for a protracted time period however would not have the source of revenue to make important upkeep. Additionally, the Rebate for Residential Rehab Program will likely be to be had city-wide in 2023. In a remark, Mayor Welch re-affirmed his management’s dedication to offering affordable housing, declaring that “our goal is to provide thousands of units of affordable housing for individuals and families who make our city work.”
FAST will dangle a press convention at St. Pete City Hall on Thursday, May 18th, to proceed discussing the subject of affordable housing.
“Our overall goals align with FAST’s mission to protect, uplift, and educate families, especially in the critical area of affordable housing. Our teams have been intentional in the search and analysis for new funding sources for more affordable housing units, and I’m pleased to report that we have been successful with our goal. Through innovation, partnership, and resource allocation, we have added an additional 1050 affordable housing units to the plan in place before I took office – our new 10-year plan is called the Housing Opportunities for All plan. Moving forward, we continue to be diligent and driven in our data analysis and deliberate push for new, robust (multi-million dollar) funding sources, a critical requirement to further increase the number of affordable housing units in the City of St. Petersburg. Another important key to success revolves around our partnerships with developers and community stakeholders, including FAST, and we look forward to continuing to work together for the benefit of our families and communities in St. Pete,” -Mayor Kenneth T. Welch.